- Community Power from Mobile
New GSMA Report on Sustainable Access to Energy & Water through M2M Connectivity
Over the past year, the GSMA Community Power from Mobile team has researched and documented the emergence of new ventures and academic projects leveraging GSM Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connectivity for Energy and Water service delivery in emerging markets. T...
- mAgri
The potential of mobile phones in transforming agriculture for smallholder farmers: Results from the Agri-Fin Mobile product development and baseline surveys
The following is a guest post by Richard Nyamanhindi, the Agri-Fin Mobile Program Coordinator at Mercy Corps. In late 2012, Mercy Corps’ Agri-Fin Mobile Program commissioned consultants to carry out baseline surveys in order to analyse the potential of ...
- mHealth
mHealth events at Mobile World Congress
With 25th of February just around the corner we are excited to share various mHealth activities happening at Mobile World Congress. Wednesday 27 February: 14:00 - 15:30: Health: Achieving Scale through Partnerships 16:00 - 17:30: Health: Innovating fo...
- Mobile for Development
From GSMA mWomen Design Challenge: Indrani Medhi on why user experience design is important
In the next of a series of interviews with the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge selection panellists, Indrani Medhi, Associate Researcher, Microsoft, shares her thoughts on why user experience design is important. This post originally appeared here. Why is user...
- mAgri
On Board – the Mobile Agriculture Train
I am Michael Nkonu and I’ve just joined GSMA in December 2012 as the Agriculture Programme Specialist for the mAgri Programme. I will be supporting agricultural content development for the mFarmer Initiative projects implemented across several countries. It ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Leveraging the mobile money ecosystem to increase traffic
We have previously shared best practices in various areas such as distribution, marketing, and how to improve your internal procedures and org structure to accelerate mobile money deployments. But leveraging what is around you, and inviting external innovation...
- mHealth
New Interactive mhealth Impact Pathway on Mobile for Development Intelligence
Mobile for Development Intelligence (MDI) recently published an mHealth Interactive Impact Pathway, a logical framework used to measure inputs, outputs, and outcomes against stated activities or occurrences. This impact pathway highlights focus areas across...
- Mobile for Development
Join Mobile for Development at Mobile World Congress 2013
This year at Mobile World Congress, our team has organised a number of Mobile for Development sessions, highlighting opportunities for social, economic and environmental impact through the delivery of commercial mobile services. The following sessions are o... - mHealth
mhealth 101 and How It Can Be Used To Save Lives
This is a guest post by Andrew Broderick, the co-director of the Center for Innovation and Technology in Public Health. This post originally appeared on the Impatient Optimists blog. Each year, approximately 350,000 women around the world die unnecessarily ...
- Green Power for Mobile
Read the latest GPM Bi-annual Report
This month, GPM released its seventh Bi-annual Report, providing an interactive updated summary of developments within the programme and the sector, through three key sections: Green Power for Mobile Innovation from the Indian Sub-Continent Community P...
- Community Power from Mobile
Mobile Ideas & Startup Incubation in Dakar
With approximately 34% of its population living on less than US$1.25/day, Senegal ranks 155 out of 187 countries in terms of poverty 1. Yet, with more than 44% of mobile market penetration (unique subscribers)2, Senegal is in the Top 10 of the most mature mob...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
New data provides window on mobile money market development in Pakistan, Uganda, and Tanzania
At the GSMA NFC and Mobile Money Summit in Milan on 22-25 October, I presented some new data from one the research projects we are sponsoring at the Financial Services for the Poor team of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The research project is called t...
- mAgri
Lessons from our first usability test of an mFarmer service in Tanzania
In December last year, members of the GSMA mAgri team joined Tigo Tanzania to conduct the first round of usability testing of the newly-developed mFarmer service- Tigo Kilimo. We travelled to the Morogoro region in Mvomero district which is located about 340Km...
- Disaster Response
Key Partnerships Speed Response to Typhoon Bopha
Last month, in the aftermath of a super typhoon that hit Mindanao Island in the Philippines, I witnessed an inspiring cooperation amongst mobile operators and NGOs. It was encouraging to learn just how much more efficient and effective disaster response can be...
- mHealth
A look at ‘mHealth: Emerging High-Impact Practices for Family Planning’
This week, the FHI 360/PROGRESS project and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Knowledge for Health project published a draft on the use of mobile technologies in support of family planning and reproductive health, called ‘mHealth: Emerging ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Opportunities and challenges in merchant payments: Digicel Pacific, Airtel Africa & Greenwich Consulting
As of October 2012, 26 mobile money services had launched the merchant payments product, whereby a customer can use their mobile money eWallet to pay a retailer for goods or services on the spot. Is there is a meaningful opportunity to use eWallets to pay fo...
- mAgri
Nokia Life Webinar: What does it take to roll out a mobile agriculture information service across 4 countries?
Nokia Life is one of the only mobile information services to reach significant scale across 4 countries and 2 continents. By the end of Dec 2012 over 90 million people had experienced and benefited from Nokia Life services designed specifically for emerging ma...
- Green Power for Mobile
Exploring Green Networks on Mobile and Development Intelligence
Last year, the GSMA launched an open data portal for the developing world’s mobile industry – Mobile and Development Intelligence. The intention was to provide the industry with access to high quality data and analytics to improve business decision making,...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Organisational Structure to Win in Mobile Money: An Interview with Frederic Blehaut at Orange Group
At the MMU Working Group in Milan this October, we had the pleasure of getting Frederic Blehaut’s thoughts on Orange’s approach to organisational design for mobile money. Frederic is the Business Manager for Orange Money in the AMEA region, looking over 11...
- Green Power for Mobile
Empowering Green Energy and Solutions for Sustainable Growth at SingTel's Go Green Forum
The SingTel Group met for their first ever Go Green Forum on the 15-16th Nov in Singapore with the objective of empowering green energy and solutions for sustainable growth. The forum was supported by GSMA’s Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) and Green Power for...
- mAgri
Mobile and agriculture in 2012
It’s been an exciting and busy year for the GSMA mAgri team. As 2012 comes to an end, I’d like to reflect on the progress being made to harness the growth of mobile technology to support farmers across the world. We wish you all a prosperous, happy an...
- mHealth
The most dramatic mHealth moments of 2012
Yesterday, the Mobile World Live team launched the most dramatic mobile moments of 2012. We thought it only fitting for the GSMA mHealth team to end with a similar, dramatic ending to 2012. We’ve been trawling our websites, talking to people in the know and ...
- Community Power from Mobile
Capturing mobile ubiquity: Our top 5 pictures from our travels in 2012
It’s hard to envision mobile ubiquity: how do you convert the growth projections of the mobile industry in emerging markets into something tangible? We spend quite a bit of time travelling to the edge of the mobile network to see first-hand what it means f...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Creating Awareness and Understanding of Mobile Money in DRC
Marketing mobile money presents many challenges to mobile operators who are used to marketing airtime. The customer journey from unawareness to regular use presents many obstacles not least because there can be a complete lack of knowledge of the service and i...
- Disaster Response
Mobile and Humanitarian 101: Key Themes from the GSMA Disaster Response and CDAC Network Webinar
On 20th November 2012, the GSMA Disaster Response Programme, in partnership with the CDAC Network, hosted a webinar titled “Back to the Basics: Mobile and Humanitarian 101.” The objective of this event was to bring together experts in the use of mobile c...
- mHealth
New CHMI report highlights trends and challenges in mHealth
The following is a guest post by Trevor Lewis, who works on the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI), an initiative of the Results for Development Institute. In many emerging economies, the world’s poor seek healthcare in a marketplace that bears l...
- Mobile for Development
Mobile financial services: how to meet women’s needs?
Resource-poor people in the developing world face a number of challenges when it comes to managing their finances: incomes are low, irregular and unpredictable and formal financial tools hard to access. Women in particular face an additional burden as they oft...
- mAgri
The role of financial services within mobile agriculture: who is going to meet smallholders’ demand for finance?
Let aside for a moment the opportunity for the mobile operators and service providers within Agri VAS, we need to be frank about the limitations of information services. Will a mobile information service alone ever create impact noticeable at the level of inte...
- Disaster Response
FloodFinder app: Real-time flood data using mobile phones in Thailand
A few months ago I was asked to become involved with an interesting competition run by USAID in Thailand called “Students for Solutions”. The competition challenged universities and colleges in Thailand to create mobile-based applications that could help i...
- Community Power from Mobile
Post-Sandy Energy Blues: An Everyday Reality for Off-Grid Mobile Users in Emerging Markets
Although no longer a hurricane when it reached the northeast coast of the United States late last October, Superstorm Sandy still packed a huge wallop—causing flooding and evacuation of many New York and New Jersey neighbourhoods. CNN reported New York Mayor...
- mHealth
Why We Prefer Plain Mobile Phones: Simplicity Is Key!
This is a Guest Blog from Text to Change (TTC) Programme Manager, Arjen Swank (@arjenswank). It originally appeared on the Text to Change blog, and you can read it in its entirety here. The ICT4D sector is developing and evolving in a rapid pace and ICT and...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-Shwari: Mobile Money Savings & Loans
Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa launched M-Shwari last week, a credit and savings product for M-PESA customers. Customers can apply for a quick approval loan, open a bank account and move funds from the wallet over to an interest bearing bank account. ...
- Green Power for Mobile
Green Power Adoption for Telecoms in Africa: Need for a Long Term Strategic View
The business case for green power in telecoms is an established fact and proven technology choices have given way to the possibility that commercial adoption is a reality. Some countries including China and India have seen an accelerated adoption of green powe...
- mHealth
New infographic on MDG 6: How mHealth is Supporting the Combat of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
The GSMA mHealth team has published an infographic that presents Global Overview of mHealth services with a deep dive in mHealth services in Africa addressing Millennium Development Goal 6 and showcasing three mHealth services in Africa addressing MDG6. If i...
- Community Power from Mobile
Community Power from Mobile goes to West Africa
Early this month, energy was a hot topic in West Africa and CPM wanted to be a part of it! We hopped on planes from Nicaragua, London, India, Dubai and Kenya to meet in Accra, Ghana. Mary was the first to arrive and spent time at the first International Off...
- mHealth
Visit us at mHealth Summit and win an iPad Mini: December 3 – 5, 2012, in Washington, D.C.
25% discount on Full Access Pass with code: GSMA-MEM12 A soon-to-be released GSMA whitepaper reveals that U.S. healthcare providers, patients and consumers strongly believe that mHealth solutions have the potential to deliver significant benefits. Healthcar...
- mAgri
A success story from Ethiopia: mobile phones bring live market information to 60,000 farmers a day
For a country with 80 million people, 85% of whom are employed in agriculture, Ethiopia is ahead of the game when it comes to making market information instantly available to the country’s smallholder farmers. The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), set up in...
- mAgri
Highlights from the mAgri Webinar on Mobile Market Information Systems
Last month, the mAgri team collaborated with USAID and FHI 360 to produce a webinar on Mobile Market Information Systems. The PDF slides and video recording of the webinar are available here. The following are a few highlights from our panel of experts ...
- Mobile for Development
Mobile for Development: The Life Stories of base of pyramid mobile users in Africa and Asia
If you use a mobile phone, and live on Earth, you probably have a prepaid SIM and live in the developing world . But what do we know of you, your needs and habits of usage? The answer is ‘not a great deal’. And it’s been ‘not a great deal’ for a ...
- mHealth
Sweating mobile assets to support the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health
Leaders met in Geneva this week to discuss the progress made on the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health and to plan for the next two years. Interestingly, mobile and ICT almost didn’t feature on the agenda or in discussions. One attendee me...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Know your processes: the first step to managing internal risks
This is a guest post from Michael Joyce, the co-author on MMU’s recent publication “Managing the risk of fraud in mobile money”. Michael is mobile money professional, specialising in operations, risk and compliance. He has experience in the design an...
- Mobile for Development
Join us for MIT's "Mobilizing Entrepreneurship" Launch and Networking Event
One November 29th, the Mobile and Development Intelligence team is hosting a networking reception and launch of the latest edition of MIT’s quarterly Innovations journal. This edition of the journal, ‘Mobilizing Entrepreneurship,’ is focused entirely on ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mitigating the risk of fraud through customer communication
As the mobile money industry continues to grow, the topic of risk management will become increasingly important. Our recent publication, “Managing the risk of fraud in mobile money,” discussed one approach to risk management that operators can use for mobi...
- mHealth
mHealth Webinar: Highlights and recording
While progress in maternal and child survival has been made, this has not been enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5. Even though maternal mortality has declined dramatically, the situation is still worrying specifically in Sub-Saharan A...
- Green Power for Mobile
Energy Conservation is an Investment: A look at Indonesia
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased energy efficiency, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or a reduced consumption from conventional energy sources. ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
In Tanzania, an aggregator connects mobile money deployments
Mobile money has taken off in Tanzania over the last few years and about a quarter of the population are now using mobile money services. It is a competitive market where all four major mobile operators have launched their own mobile money service. The fierce ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Safaricom M-PESA’s H1 FY13 Results: A portrait of a maturing mobile money service
Despite the emerging success of a number of mobile money deployments outside of Kenya, Safaricom’s M-PESA remains a bellwether for the industry. Safaricom’s half year 2012 - 2013 financial results released yesterday provide a window into the evolution of t...
- mAgri
Keeping users at the heart of the design for mobile Value Added Services
This is the first post in a multi-part series on user testing for mobile Value Added Services. When I first heard about designing mobile Value Added Services (VAS) through user testing, I was not very convinced that we were headed in the right direction. Ho...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Microinsurance to reward mobile money wallet activity: Examples from Pakistan and Tanzania
Both for commercial reasons and also to achieve greater financial inclusion, mobile money providers would like to see subscribers maintain balances in their mobile wallets. Storing funds electronically rather than immediately withdrawing the full amount in cas...
- mHealth
iAfya: Health Information through mobile phones - today in Kenya, tomorrow across Africa
This is a guest post, written by Dr. John Muthee, Head of Business Development, Avallain Africa "If we can improve access to health information to the masses, then we are on our way to improving health interventions and ultimately, reducing health related ...
- Mobile for Development
Submit Your Mobile Product or Service at GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards 2013
The GSMA’s 18th Global Mobile Awards deadline is just around the corner—the online entry is open only until November 30th at 17:00 GMT. There are four awards in the Social & Economic Development Category, relevant to those creating products and service...
- mAgri
Mobile Agriculture site launched on Mobile and Development Intelligence Portal
We’re delighted to announce that mAgri metrics, products and services are now live on the Mobile and Development Intelligence (MDI) portal. Mobile and Development Intelligence (MDI) is a fantastic open access portal which offers data and analysis that sta...
- mHealth
Upcoming mHealth Webinar: How to maximise the impact of mHealth services for maternal and child health
While progress in maternal and child survival has been made, this has not been enough to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. According to a recent report, maternal mortality has declined dramatically, with maternal deaths dropping from 543,000 to 287...
- Community Power from Mobile
A Look at Azuri's Mobi Solar Mobile Phone Charging Unit in Kenya
The is a guest post by Simon Collings, Chief Operations Officer at GVEP International. In the remote communities around Ganze, near the Kenyan coast, charging a mobile phone is a major challenge. The nearest source of electricity may be 15-20 km away, abo...
- Green Power for Mobile
Addressing telecom site security and accessibility challenges
Telecom site security and site accessibility remains a major hurdle for successfully managing and maintaining telecom sites and equipment with a 99.98% benchmark uptime. Security is one of the biggest challenges in managing a network of sites for a telecom ...
- Disaster Response
Mobile Operators Preparing for Hurricane Sandy to make landfall in the United States
As Hurricane Sandy touches down on the East Coast of the United States, the population is bracing for the impact of heavy rains and high winds, whilst emergency response personnel, utility companies and mobile operators prepare. Hurricane Sandy has been pic...
- mHealth
iheedCrowd: Animated health content for mHealth platforms
This post is written by Kunal D Patel, Medical Director at The iheed Institute. iheedCrowd, an online animation platform where digital designers have the opportunity to create the next generation of health education content, has been launched by iheed. ...
- Green Power for Mobile
Highlights from GPM's Bangladesh Specific Working Group
For the first time, the GPM team held a Bangladesh specific Working Group in Dhaka on the 16th October, which was co-hosted by Grameenphone. Over 50 delegates from 29 organisations attended the event. Since it’s the first event of this kind for telecom in...
- Disaster Response
Disaster Risk Reduction: Establishing coordinated and reliable communications
October 13th marked the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, a day focused on improving resilience at a national and community level, to mitigate the impact that natural disasters have on the environment, the economy, and most importantly, on those c...
- Community Power from Mobile
Solar power has a place in Mozambique: From the central and southern provinces
Islands of Connectivity From Muxuenge in the province of Sofala, the sandy road west heads 80 km to the town of Chitobe, soon leaving behind a power line and any evidence of easily accessible water supplies. It is a dedicated task to receive an SMS on you...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The GSMA publishes MMU 2012 Annual Report
It is a well-established fact that mobile money represents the biggest opportunity to increase financial inclusion in emerging markets. That was true four years ago, when a handful of mobile money deployments were advancing a new frontier for financial inclusi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Can mobile money work for merchant payments?
With P2P, bill pay and airtime top ups representing the vast majority of mobile money transactions today, mobile money service providers are keen to broaden their product offering. Merchant payments, a proximate payment from a consumer to a business at the poi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA position on the taxation of mobile money transactions in Kenya
Last week the Kenyan government announced a plan to apply a 10% excise duty on the fees charged by MNOs for mobile money transactions. This action would risk jeopardizing the mobile money market because it would mean a significant increase of the cost of the s...
- mHealth
Is there potential for eHealth and mHealth in Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative?
Yesterday, Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan launched Saving One Million Lives, an initiative that will aim to improve access to essential primary health services and commodities for Nigeria’s women and children and to save one million lives by 2015...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Introducing a new publication - Expanding the Ecosystem of Mobile Money: Considerations for Interoperability
Interoperability in mobile money has been a topic of discussion within the industry for some time. In a new paper we look broadly at interoperability and outline some opportunities for better-connected mobile money platforms. Efforts made by the industry so fa...
- Green Power for Mobile
Power Challenges for Telecoms in Nigeria
Nigeria, one of the largest telecoms market in Africa, is confronted with various operational challenges to power and run the existing base of over 20,000 telecom towers. Having one of lowest levels of grid power availability--at an average of 5 hours of avail...
- mAgri
Recognising Rural Women: guidelines on using mobile to improve women farmers’ access to information
On the International Day of Rural Women we are pleased to share a focus note on Designing & Marketing Mobile Information & Advisory Services for Women Smallholders. Under the mFarmer Initiative, one of our key areas is working with mobile service pr...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
“I am worried that agent training is time consuming & resource intensive …do I have to invest to train my channel?”
Agent training is a powerful lever to drive agent performance. This week, MMU held a webinar to dialogue with mobile money managers about how to design and implement impactful and cost effective trainings. In the first section of the webinar, Yasmina and Gerry...
- mHealth
Designing mHealth services for post-2015 MDG agenda
Next week the UN Commission will be meeting in Abuja to discuss the Life-Saving Commodities initiative. Nigeria, which accounts for 14% of global maternal deaths, is expected to attract significant commitments from the international community as well as launch...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Announcing a new MMU Publication: Organisational Design to Succeed in Mobile Money
Of the eight fastest growing mobile money deployments in the world, seven manage mobile money as an independent business unit. Coincidence? Or is this organisational choice a key success factor? The operational challenges in launching and growing mobil...
- mAgri
WeFarm: Using Mobile to Crowdsource Farmers’ Knowledge Across Continents
The post is written by Kenny Ewan, the Programme Manager at Cafédirect Producers' Foundation. WeFarm is a worldwide peer-to-peer knowledge sharing network from the Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation (CPF). It has been designed by and for smallholder...
- Mobile for Development
What if we designed smartphones with the needs of resource-poor women in mind?
The GSMA mWomen Programme asks 'What if we designed smartphones with the needs of resource-poor women in mind?' and encourages innovators around the world to design an Android Launcher to do just that. See http://designchallenge.mwomen.org/ to learn more....
- mLearning
World Teachers' Day: Highlighting a school based on academic performance, mentoring, and a supportive community
Stepping slightly out of the mobile learning space this week, the mLearning Programme was fortunate enough to attend an exciting event hosted by The After School Corporation (TASC) and brilliantly facilitated by VitalWave Consulting. The two-day intense brains...
- mHealth
mHealth in Kenya: great potential but many challenges to address
Kenya is a country of 41 million people and US$783 GDP per capita. With a health system still needed to be put in place, Kenya’s major health concerns are: High HIV prevalence rates (HIV rate is 6.3%); Extremely high rate of maternal and infant deaths ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Announcing a new MMU Publication: Managing the Risk of Fraud in Mobile Money
“If you think risk management is expensive, try an accident.” - Stelios Haji-Ioannou (founder of EasyJet) Managing fraud and risk in mobile money is critically imp...
- Community Power from Mobile
The Other M2M Opportunity: Enhanced Utility Access in Emerging Markets
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology is primarily about enabling the transfer of data between machines. With the help of a module operating through a communications network, the data is collected, evaluated and if necessary, a response is triggered. Thus, M2M ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
AFI GPF 2012, day 2, and MMU contribution to the discussion of interoperability
After the first day was dedicated to the progresses made under the Maya declaration, the second day of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Global Policy Forum (GPF) provided the opportunity to explore different approaches to specific policy and regulato...
- Disaster Response
For Telecoms companies, disaster preparedness begins to reap rewards
As Hurricane Isaac approached the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines towards the end of August 2012, local telecom providers were busy preparing to ensure that their networks remained online and services were disrupted as little as possible for their million...
- mHealth
Integrating 3 into 1: Creating National Repositories of Information for mHealth & eHealth services
There is a proliferation of m and eHealth services, driven primarily by mobile operators, international donor agencies and civil society. Despite the proliferation of mobile services, the latent potential has not been directly converted into a sustainable impa...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
AFI GPF 2012, day 1, and MMU contribution to the Maya Declaration
This week, I am in Cape Town to attend the fourth Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Global Policy Forum (GPF), together with MMU Director Seema Desai, and over 360 policymakers, regulators, and partners from 80+ developing and emerging countries. The c... - mAgri
Tigo and TechnoServe pilot Tigo Kilimo service, first lessons learned
As Tigo Tanzania and TechnoServe are getting ready to launch their full Tigo Kilimo service in Tanzania, the first lessons from the pilot project have been learned. Piloting of the service took place in the Morogoro region of Tanzania with more than 150 farmer...
- Mobile for Development
USAID, Qtel, AusAID and GSMA launch GSMA mWomen Design Challenge
We were excited to watch the launch of the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge: Redefining the User Experience at this year’s Social Good Summit in New York last night. U.S. Agency for International Development Chief Innovation Officer and and Senior Counselor Mau...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Warid Pesa – Channel flexibility as competitive advantage
This blog is written by Phil Levin and Gunnar Camner The mobile industry in Uganda is one of the most competitive in Africa, with six players vying for market share in a country of 35 million. Price wars are rampant and promotions are fierce. Multiple-SIM o...
- Green Power for Mobile
Highlights from GPM's 4th India Specific Working Group
On the 11th September 2012, the 4th GSMA Green Power for Mobile India Specific Working Group was held in New Delhi, India, and co-hosted by TAIPA. Fifty-nine delegates from 35 different organisations attended the Working Group. The objective of the day-long ...
- mHealth
What is the role for Mobile Operators in MDG 4? A look at Etisalat’s Mobile Baby service
Last week I presented various mHealth initiatives that are helping to achieve MDG 5, which is to improve maternal health. This week I will present the role of mobile operators in helping to achieving MDG 4, with a focus on Etisalat and their Mobile Baby servic...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Designing and delivering effective agent training programmes
There’s more to agent training than just training agents Agent networks in mobile money thrive when they have convenient ways to access liquidity, compelling commissions, well merchandised and monitored shops and, well trained agents. Well trained agents ...
- mAgri
Providing weather forecasts to smallholder farmers by mobile phone: how do we tackle the accuracy issue?
Our recent mFarmer projects have reconfirmed the finding that weather forecasts are in high demand from smallholder farmers. However, this type of information is also one of the most challenging to provide. The accuracy of weather forecasts is an area of si...
- Mobile for Development
How mobile is transforming small-holder farmers’ business models in Sri Lanka
Dambullah farmers’ market in central Sri Lanka is one of the busiest in the country, acting as a supply hub for various smaller satellite markets and those in the capital, Colombo, over 120km away. Typically, buyers and brokers purchase bulk quantities of pr...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-PESA, Airtel Money or Orange Money? This is why BoP customers choose one rather than the other
On the drivers of adoption in competitive markets This blog post was written by Tonny Omwansa, co-author of Money, Real Quick: The story of M-Pesa. The GSMA recently published the results from its Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey, documenting the degr...
- Community Power from Mobile
One mobile tower and lantern at a time
"The happiness on his face was the same as I had on the day that my father bought me the first television. This was in 1972. Seeing the boy and his reaction, I felt both happy and sad. Happy because you see that you’re contributing to bringing smiles to the ...
- mHealth
How mHealth is helping to achieve MDG 5
In the previous two blogs, I presented frightening state of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and mHealth solutions addressing it. In the upcoming two blogs, I will address MDG 5 and MDG 4 and various mHealth initiatives. MDG 5: improve maternal health. Target 5...
- mAgri
SokoShambani: A Market-Driven Approach to Developing Agri VAS
At a recent mobile agriculture networking event in Nairobi, I met Stephen Kimiri of SokoShambani (Swahili for Farmer’s Market), a mobile service supporting small-scale potato farmers in Kenya with market prices and buyer/seller matchmaking. What I found mo...
- Disaster Response
A Country at Risk: Building Resilient Mobile Infrastructures for Disaster Preparedness & Response in Nepal
Nepal has experienced a significant number of natural disasters including floods, landslides and earthquakes. Kathmandu in particular is widely regarded as an at-risk location for a natural disaster to strike; seven earthquakes rocked Nepal during August 2012....
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
In Kenya, microfinance is going mobile - Part 2
This blog has been written with the support of Tonny Omwansa, co-author of Money, Real Quick: The story of M-Pesa. We want to thank David James, CEO of Musoni and Sharon Langevin, Project Director of FrontlineSMS: Credit. Read Part 1 here. FrontlineSMS ...
- mHealth
The Current State of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: Part 2
This is the second blog in a two-part series about the state of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and current mHealth initiatives addressing HIV/AIDS in the country. This post presents current mHealth initiatives in South Africa. Read Part 1 here. A tremendous need...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
In Kenya, microfinance is going mobile - Part 1
This blog has been written with the support of Tonny Omwansa, co-author of Money, Real Quick: The story of M-Pesa. We want to thank David James, CEO of Musoni and Sharon Langevin, Project Director of FrontlineSMS:Credit. Read Part 2 here. A lot has been w...
- mAgri
GSMA mAgri publishes new infographic: Agricultural productivity gap & the opportunity for mobile
Over the past month we’ve been gathering data to create this infographic that we hope, conveys why we’re so excited about mobile agriculture, or mAgriculture. More specifically, we want to tell the story about the opportunity for mobile phones to bridge th...
- mLearning
The future of education in Africa is mobile
A recent article by Steve Vosloo, the Mobile Learning Specialist at UNESCO, highlighted the vast potential for the use of mobiles in Africa. With the current education system under stress and under resourced, the proliferation and affordability or mobile techn...
- mHealth
The Current State of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: Part 1
This is the first blog in a two-part series about the state of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and current mHealth initiatives addressing HIV/AIDS in the country. This post presents the state of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, while the next blog will address mHealth initi...
- Mobile for Development
Mobile and Development Intelligence: Updates to the data portal
Since launching in June, Mobile and Development Intelligence (MDI), the open access data portal, has already added some great new features and content. Find out more about them below – and look out for more additions and updates over the coming months. Ne...
- Green Power for Mobile
Green Power Feasibility Studies demonstrate considerable savings in diesel consumption and OPEX for Ucell & Geocell
GPM has successfully completed feasibility studies in 26 countries so far, the most recent ones being in Uzbekistan and Georgia for the Ucell and Geocell networks. Ucell and Geocell are part of TeliaSonera, a multi-country operator group with operations across...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
BCEAO’s participatory approach to regulatory review: MMU’s engagement with the Central Bank of West African States on policy initiatives to increase mobile money adoption
Please scroll down to read this article in French. This post is the fourth and last part of a series on the CGAP and the Mobile Money for the Unbanked blogs on the topic of mobile financial services in francophone West Africa. This short series features pro...
- mAgri
Meet the newest member of the mAgri Programme
Hi everyone, I’m Ashraf, the newest team member in the GSMA mAgri programme. I joined the GSMA very recently as a Technical Programme Consultant for the mFarmer initiative from Bangladesh, and I’ll be providing feasibility assessments and technical consu...
- mHealth
Treating malnutrition in Zanzibar: Empowering health workers with an mHealth solution
The following is a guest post by Marc Mitchell, Founder and President of D-tree International. It’s an excerpt that appeared on Health Works Collective, as part of the Mobile Health Around the Globe series. Read it in its entirety here. Zanzibar, an islan...
- Disaster Response
Reflecting on humanitarianism
August 19th marked World Humanitarian Day, a date designated to raise awareness of "people helping people" and acknowledge the contribution of humanitarian workers who travel to the frontlines of natural disasters and conflicts to provide support and relief fo...
- Mobile for Development
Female retailers 'vital' to Dialog's rural growth targets
This post originally appeared on the GSMA mWomen’s blog. Sri Lankan mobile operator Dialog Axiata knows that the rural market is its next opportunity for growth. To reach this consumer base, Dialog has created the 5 Star Partner Programme, which uses ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
What is the business case for banks to get into mobile money? The example of DBBL in Bangladesh
I recently had the opportunity to talk to Mr Abul Kashem Md. Shirin, the Deputy Managing Director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL), a bank serving over 2.5 million people in Bangladesh. A couple of years ago, DBBL was facing a challenge, as it was unable to...
- mAgri
Mobile services to increase the outreach of conservation agriculture practices in Mexico: MasAgro Movil project by CIMMYT
“What would you do if your house was ruthlessly destroyed every 6 months? I bet you would leave the place and search for a better place to reside. Same logic guides worms, which are essential for the quality of the soil,” Bram Govaerts explains, as he digs...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
INOVA: An Oasis of innovation tucked away in the West African desert
Please scroll down to read this article in French. Today we continue our series on mobile financial services in francophone West Africa on the CGAP and Mobile Money for the Unbanked blogs. A couple days ago, we blogged about the emerging ecosystem of bran...
- mHealth
Polio Vaccinations in Angola: How Movicel uses Mobile to help in Vaccination Campaigns
‘’Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and ...
- Community Power from Mobile
Calling out in the dark
On July 31st India experienced a blackout of historic proportion. Over two days 700 million people, 9% of the world’s population, were left without power in is what is being called the worst blackout in human history. Across eastern and northern India, hos...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Wari: A local platform heads to the global market
Please scroll down to read this article in French. This post is the second of a three-part series this week on the CGAP and the Mobile Money for the Unbanked blogs on the topic of mobile financial services in francophone West Africa. This short series featu...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Senegal: A Unique Ecosystem of Branchless Banking in West Africa
By Omar Ndiaye & Sarah Rotman Please scroll down to read this article in French. This post kicks off a three-part series this week on the CGAP and the Mobile Money for the Unbanked blogs on the topic of mobile financial services in francophone West A...
- Green Power for Mobile
Highlights from GPM's South East Asia Working Group
Last month, the GSMA Green Power for Mobile Programme hosted another successful South East Asia Regional Working Group in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. More than 30 delegates from mobile operators, vendors, energy service companies and development partner attended the...
- mHealth
Every two minutes a woman dies in childbirth – can mHealth help?
August 6th 2012 is a date I will never forget-- the date that my first nephew was born. I was overwhelmed when my mum called me to tell me the news! Tears and laughter at the same time! According to my sister, everything went smoothly apart from the unbeara...
- mAgri
Video interview with IKSL: How to provide the right information at the right time for Agri VAS
Last month, my colleague Amol Jadhav and I visited the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) State operations team in Karnataka, India. I’ve worked with the IKSL project for a number of years and I’m always inspired to see the hard work of the IKSL agricultur...
- Disaster Response
Flooding in the Philippines: A Look at SMART's Disaster Response Activities
On Monday, August 6th, Tropical Storm Haiku hit the Philippines, exacerbating precipitation from the south-west monsoon rains and causing mass flooding affecting 850,000 people and displacing more than 250,000. This storm follows Typhoon Saola which hit in l...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Is there a demand for mobile loans?
The following is a guest post by Elio Vitucci, Managing Director of Experian MicroAnalytics, as part of the series on airtime based credit scoring. Also read part 1 and part 2 of the series. According to a recent McKinsey Publication, “new alternative dat...
- Mobile for Development
Talk 'N Text address women's biggest barrier to ownership: affordability
This post originally appeared on the GSMA mWomen's blog. As part of the GSMA mWomen Working Group meeting, Deborah Ann Tan, Special Assistant to the President/Head, Investor Relations and Group Enterprise Risk Management, Smart, outlined the development of ...
- mHealth
Hacking for Health: Working with Technology to Improve Healthcare in Malawi
The following is a guest post by Isaac Holeman. It's an excerpt that appeared on National Geographic News Watch, as part of the Digital Diversity series. Read it in its entirety here. After driving south to the end of the pavement, we continued on gravel an...
- mAgri
A call towards a “Better Life”: Marketing Agri Value Added Services to Rural Communities in India
On a recent trip to India, our Programme Director Fiona Smith and I had the opportunity to visit a few Agri Value Added Services (VAS) field deployments. One visit that stood out was to the Shekhpura Village in Rajasthan (Northern India) to see Handygo’s...
- mLearning
Mobilink Reshaping Education and the Lives Of Women and Girls in Rural Areas through Mobile Technology
The following is a guest post by Mobilink. Mobilink recognises that an educated society that is socially inclusive is the nation’s key to ensuring sustainable development. In order to promote education and aid sustainable development in the communities ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Making mobile money work for business
This is a guest post written by Ignacio Mas, a consultant on mobile money and technology-enabled models for financial inclusion. In a recent study of business uses of M-PESA in Kenya funded by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust of Kenya, my former colleag...
- Disaster Response
Managing Post-Storm and Disaster Power Outages: Is Distributed Generation a Solution?
The Eastern United States was sweltering at the end of June. The record-high temperatures caused a rare storm called a “derecho” which produces straight-line winds across a wide front of near-hurricane speeds (while a hurricane produces circular winds). Th...
- Mobile for Development
M4D in action: The Lady Farmers of Chazi village, Mvomero District, Tanzania
In the middle of a field in deepest Tanzania, a Chinese man stood, conical hat on head as per central casting, silently contemplating perhaps ten tonnes of concrete piping. Towering over him like maternal brontosaurs were three brand new JCBs. If anyone was ...
- mHealth
Mobile operator value proposition increasingly aligns with health
In just the last three years alone, the industry has witnessed significant strides that mobile operators have made in expanding from direct-to-consumer health services to the enterprise health market. Orange, together with GE, has been awarded a contract to in...
- mAgri
How (not why) to design and market mobile information and advisory services for women smallholder farmers
There is no question around why it’s important to reach women farmers with agricultural services, as the facts are often quoted: Half of all farmers in the developing world are women and in some countries such as Rwanda, women account for as much as 70% ...
- mHealth
Pilot-itis: What's the cure?
The following is a guest post by Sara Chamberlain, Head of ICT in India for BBC Media Action. This post originally appeared here. Speakers at the GSMA Mobile Health (mHealth) Summit in South Africa bemoaned the 'Pilot-itis’ - the inability to break ou...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile-Enabled Savings via the Business Correspondent Model in India
This is a guest post written by Debbie Dean (Project Director, Micro savings Initiative) and Camilla Nestor (Vice President, Financial Services) from Grameen Foundation. When we launched our microsavings initiative – a three-year project funded by the Bil...
- mHealth
Collaboration essential to achieve scale in mHealth
Across Africa, 6 countries boast mobile penetration rates in excess of 100 percent. Cognisant of the fact that only one Mobile Operator (MNO) across the African continent has 100 percent market share (Ethiopia), it stands to reason that leveraging the reach...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Zimbabwe’s Ecocash shows impressive growth
Econet, Zimbabwe’s leading mobile network operator, launched its “Ecocash” mobile moneyoffering just 8 months ago, and has raced to over 1.5 million registered customers since. Zimbabwe’s mobile telephony sector is booming; penetration has accelerat...
- mAgri
Leveraging Information and Communication Technology for the Base of the Pyramid: Innovative business models in agriculture services
The following is a guest blog by Lucie Klarsfeld from Hystra. In 2011, Hystra, a consulting firm specializing in hybrid (social and business) strategies, and its non-profit partner Ashoka, reviewed more than 280 initiatives globally that used Information an...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Insights on the Economics of Mobile Money: M-PESA Key Revenue Driver for Safaricom
This is a guest post written by Mireya Almazán and Megan Oxman, from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. M-PESA continues to make headlines, increasing revealing insights on the economics of mobile money. Recently released financial statements from Sa...
- Community Power from Mobile
Global LEAP and Using Mobile to Help Close the Energy Divide
The Community Power from Mobile (CPM) programme is a proud participant in the Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership (Global LEAP) – an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, the World Bank, TERI, and the United Nations Foundation, in support of...
- Mobile for Development
Life Stories: Masai Mobile Usage in Hells Gate National Park, Kenya
Hell’s Gate is a 68m2 national park just South of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, North West of Nairobi. As far as African national parks go, it’s considered small, but is popular due to its proximity to Nairobi, as well as its beautiful scenery and abundance of w...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tigo, Bima, and MicroEnsure bring a “Freemium” model to mobile insurance
Insurance is a complicated product but one where mobile distribution methods hold some promise. MMU’s latest paper on mobile microinsurance tries to lay out some of the options and complexities. The obvious question becomes: What works and what doesn’t? ...
- Disaster Response
Mobile Asia Expo: Disaster Response Working Group Overview
During Mobile Asia Expo (June 2012, Shanghai), the Disaster Response Programme welcomed representatives from the mobile industry and humanitarian community, including SMART Communications Inc., NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Dialog Axiata, Ericsson, International Federatio...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
NFC mobile payments: A Case for Developing Markets
The following is a guest blog post by Annie Smith, who heads Mobile Financial Services in the Pacific Region for Digicel. As readers of this blog, we can appreciate the position mobile money has in a GSM business. Within a small group of operators, except...
- mHealth
mHealth and the Current State of Global Healthcare
The current state of global healthcare can be illustrated by a few key characteristics: an aging and increasing population; the threat of pandemics; the increasing costs of treatments; and, a short supply of physicians - with experienced specialists unevenly d...
- mAgri
Innovations in Agriculture at the 2012 G8 Summit: Showcasing the mFarmer Initiative
I was delighted to present the mFarmer Initiative at the Chicago Council on Affair’s Third Annual Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security on the eve of the 2012 G8 Summit. President Obama, G8 and African leaders, business and agriculture experts me...
- Community Power from Mobile
Sustainable Energy for All: How mobile operators can support energy access
Over 1 billion people worldwide—or one in five—lack access to electricity, and 95% of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All (SEFA), and launched ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile money as an agent of financial inclusion: the new regulation for e-money services in Namibia – Interview with Sergio de Sousa, Bank of Namibia
The following is an interview with Sergio de Sousa, Deputy Director, Payments and Settlement Systems Department, Bank of Namibia. In March this year, Bank of Namibia released a new regulatory framework for electronic money. The new framework aims to improve re...
- Community Power from Mobile
The cost of being connected: A phone for every woman needs an affordable charging solution
This post originally appeared on the GSMA mWomen's blog. James Wolfensohn’s New York Times op-ed highlighted the role that mobile phones can have on fighting the inequalities women in the developing world face. But a phone is not enough: phone charging re...
- Mobile for Development
MDI: Addressing the lack of freely available data & analysis for mobile industry stakeholders
One challenge facing mobile industry stakeholders in the developing world is the lack of freely available data and analysis to support their business decision making. To address this, last week the Mobile for Development launched the Mobile and Development I...
- Disaster Response
M4D & ICT4D Innovation: The Importance of Local Knowledge and Insight
Development critics have long lambasted practitioners and organizations that are seen to create development policy and interventions driven by donor demands, and in turn, isolate the very populations they seek to assist. Rightly so—history is scattered with ...
- mHealth
The Value of Health Hotlines: A Perspective from the Philippines
In 2001, Dr. Santos, a young doctor who originally hailed from one of the remote islands in the Philippines, moved to Manila to continue her medical residency in a much larger private hospital. Sometime in 2006, she received a call on her mobile phone at aroun...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A new MMU publication on emerging practices in Mobile Microinsurance
One of the most important reasons that people use financial services is to manage risk. Insurance, in particular, is a useful way for households to protect themselves from negative financial shocks and other adverse events. Unfortunately, although a range of i...
- Mobile for Development
Life Stories: The Impact of Mobile in Kibera, Kenya
Last week I walked around Kibera, the largest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. Kibera houses approximately one million people in shacks that average 12ft x 12ft, which are built with mud walls, screened with concrete, with corrugated tin roo...
- mHealth
Mobile and Development Intelligence launches with key mHealth metrics
This week, the Mobile for Development launched the Mobile and Development Intelligence portal in conjunction with Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Through an open access portal, mHealth stakehold...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Competing in the mobile money space
In the early days of mobile money, MNOs launched mobile money services to differentiate themselves from their competitors, hoping both to increase the loyalty of their customers and to attract new ones. As the number of mobile money services continues to grow,...
- mLearning
Key mLearning findings from Ghana, India, Morocco and Uganda
Recently, the GSMA mLearning team and The MasterCard Foundation released a new report, ‘Shaping the Future – Realising the Potential of Informal Learning Through Mobile’. This report focuses on the needs and aspirations of underserved young people, the ...
- mHealth
Illustrating mHealth services across the Patient Healthcare Pathway & the MDGs
Last week at the Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town, our mHealth programme released a series of reports providing insight into the mobile health space. The team’s report on Using mHealth to Support Universal Health Access illustrates a comprehensive overview ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Accounting for the importance of airtime top-ups in mobile money around the world
As part of the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey, we collected transaction data from participating service providers. This allows us to get a feel for how customers are using mobile money to date. The following chart breaks down the four kinds of functi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Benchmarking with the best
One of the key objectives of the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey was to give managers of mobile money deployments better insight into the performance of their service relative to others. This is why we prepared a confidential, customised benchmarking ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MTN MobileMoney in Rwanda: a new mobile money success story
The 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey allowed us to identify 8 fast-growing mobile money services that are following the path of M-PESA in Kenya. Six of these 8 services are in East Africa, and after Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, the mobile money wave is...
- Disaster Response
Getting ready for cyclone season: Mobile operators and disaster preparedness
Over the last few weeks my inbox has become increasingly crowded with cyclone alerts. They’ve been sent to me by various alert systems that provide details on the formation and path of cyclones in both the Eastern Pacific and the Atlantic. Though current cyc...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The two paths that mobile money deployments tread
One of the objectives of the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey, which we announced earlier last week, was to compare the performance of different mobile money services with each other. In this post, we discuss the surprising results of this analysis. ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU moves into an exciting new phase …
Last week, we announced that GSMA has secured new funding (9.8m USD, over three years) from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation and Omidyar Network, for MMU to continue working with the mobile money industry to reach more unbanke...
- Green Power for Mobile
Researching Fuel Cell Systems for Base Stations
Last summer, our intern Mark Crouch from Imperial College researched fuel cell systems, including the types of technologies available, the prevalence of their use, advantages and disadvantages at mobile base stations as well as technical and financial drivers....
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Announcing the results of the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey
Today the Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme is releasing the results of the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey. The survey is, we believe, the most comprehensive attempt to measure the extent of customer adoption of mobile money for the unbanked ev...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Money, Real Quick: The Story of M-PESA
Five years after its launch, the word “M-PESA” is routinely used as a verb in Kenya, so it’s only fitting that the service is now the subject of a book. ‘Money, Real Quick: The Story of M-PESA’ is a new book written by Tonny Omwansa and Nicholas Sull...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money: The View from the C-Suite
Mobile money line managers cannot bring about success on their own; they need support from senior management. But, where does mobile money sit among the competing priorities of MNO executives? Watch the interview with Maarten Boute, CEO of Digicel Haiti a...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Orange Money – Part 2
First launched in Côte d’Ivoire in December 2008, Orange Money is also available in Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Kenya, as well as in Botswana and Cameroon. It will soon be launched in Mauritius. Today, we publish the second and final part of our in...
- mAgri
The Market Opportunity for Mobile Agriculture: Highlights from Mobile World Congress 2012
This post originally appeared on the Business Fights Poverty Blog. Mobile Agriculture was on the agenda for the first time at Mobile World Congress 2012, the world’s largest event for the mobile industry where over 67,000 visitors attended from 205 countr...
- Disaster Response
Myanmar – a New Frontier for Disaster Telecoms?
I was in Yangon last week and witnessed the NLD gain 43 out of 44 contested parliamentary seats in Myanmar’s landmark by-elections. It may give them less than 7% of seats in parliament but it is still highly significant. Myanmar has come a long way in 18...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Beyond marketing: building trust and the value proposition for mobile money through consumer education
Robert is a mobile money agent in Ghana. He tries to teach his customers how to use their cell phones to perform seemingly straight forward transactions: check account balances, deposit money and transfer cash. But unfortunately, Robert ends up exactly where h...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-PESA extends its reach
The following is a guest post by Billy Jack from Georgetown University’s Economics Department and Tavneet Suri from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. New data from the fourth round of a survey of Kenyan households confirm what every visitor to this East...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Extending Financial Services using Mobile Based Consumer Scoring
The following is a guest post by Jonathan Hakim, President & CEO of Cignifi, as part of the series on airtime based credit scoring. Also read part 1 and part 3 of the series. The Cignifi behavior-based scoring platform leverages behavioral analytics and...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Airtime based credit scoring: Can it drive innovative loan products for mobile money?
A customers’ pattern of airtime top ups is being used to determine the credit-worthiness of a prospective borrower and approve/deny loans. Will this technique facilitate the development of innovative micro-loans via the mobile channel? Is the data truly ...
- Green Power for Mobile
Announcing our 3rd India Specific GPM Working Group
We are pleased to announce that following the success of our last India Specific GSMA GPM Working Group in October 2011; our 3rd Indian Specific GSMA Green Power for Mobile Working Group has been confirmed to take place on the 13th April 2012 at Hotel Le Merid...
- Green Power for Mobile
GPM & CPM Highlights from MWC 2012
What an incredible week in Barcelona – so much innovation presented, new contacts made and plans already in progress for next year! Green Power for Mobile and Community Power from Mobile certainly came away with many actions points and food for thought on ho...
- Community Power from Mobile
World Bank Energy Day
An ESCO, an academic, and a telecom representative walked into a bank… Bad jokes aside, last month the World Bank hosted its annual Energy Day and invited the GSMA to participate on a panel entitled “Electricity and Telecom Services: Realizing Synergies...
- Green Power for Mobile
Bharti Infratel's GreenTowers P7 Initiative
There are estimated 3.5 million base stations around world. Bharti Infratel is one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers, owning 35,000 of India’s some 400,000 towers and share-owners in Indus Towers, which adds a further 100,000. Together, they ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Water Payments – What’s in it for Mobile Network Operators?
This is the second post of a two-part series looking at an Oxford University study on the use of mobile money to pay for water services in Africa. Mobile money payments have the potential to make paying for water a much less burdensome task by nearly elimi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Highlights from MMU Working Group at Mobile World Congress 2012
Last week, MMU was in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. Around 100 participants from various organisations and regions attended the MMU Working Group. For those who couldn’t attend, MMU is happy to share some of the highlights from the Working Group. S...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A new MMU article on the case for interoperability
Interoperability is one of the most widely discussed topics in the mobile money industry. Almost everyone has a view on the subject – and to make matters even more complicated, there are almost as many definitions of interoperability as there are opinions ab...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Benefits and Challenges of Mobile Water Payments in Urban Africa
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ilana Cohen, Tim Foster, Aaron Krolikowski and Rob Hope from the Water Science, Policy and Management programme at Oxford University. Mobile money in Africa offers a promising tool for one of the mo...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-PESA responds: Benefits and Challenges of using mobile money to reduce poverty for women in Kenya
The M-PESA staff members were grateful for the feedback provided by the women’s groups. First, the workshop provided them with a broader context in which to understand how these groups were using their services in the rural areas. Second, they were able to s...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile money technology: not easy, but why?
In recent months, mobile money services have attracted some unflattering headlines* in response to technology related challenges. When the technology platforms through which mobile money services are delivered experience downtime, customers are unable to tr...
- mLearning
Researching the mobile user habits of the youth market
Partnering with the MasterCard Foundation, the mLearning team went on the ground and conducted some much needed research around the mobile user habits of the youth market. The analysis was conducted in order to take a different and more bottom up approach to t...
- Green Power for Mobile
Top Up for Energy Access
Global mobile market penetration reached over 80% of the population at the end of 2011. Limited in the past to developed markets and urban zones, the growth and benefits of mobile telephony is now reaching rural regions in emerging markets. In Africa and the M...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Benefits and challenges of using Mobile Money to reduce poverty for women in Kenya
Over the past seven months, my colleague Dr. Jane Mutinda from Kenyatta University in Kenya and I have been studying how mobile money services impact poverty reduction in rural Eastern Kenya. So far we’ve seen that Safaricom’s mobile money service M-PESA h...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA provides further updates on Mobile World Congress 2012
The GSMA today announced further updates for the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which will be taking place 27 February – 1 March, 2012 at the Fira de Barcelona Montjuïc in Barcelona. The GSMA outlined new developments in the conference programme, as well a... - Green Power for Mobile
Connecting dollars and cents to watts
We sit at an interesting intersection between mobile giants and small enterprises trying to deliver energy access. Our role is to facilitate the mobile industry’s involvement in delivering energy access. In this role we spend a lot of time speaking to sma...
- Green Power for Mobile
Infrastructure in Malawi
Access to electricity and reliable transport remains a key challenge to economic growth; telecommunications presents strong growth opportunities The future economic growth of Malawi will predominantly be affected by the development of its key infrastructure...
- Green Power for Mobile
Green Power for Mobile and Mobile World Congress
Mobile World Congress is just weeks away and what a great agenda we have yet again this year! High profile key note speakers, insightful panel discussions, thousands of exhibitors and a world of innovation. 2012 also sees the year that the UN Secretary-Gene...
- Green Power for Mobile
Climate Change in India
There is possible no other country in the world that has a climate which is as varied as India’s. It ranges from very cold in the Himalayas, extreme heat in Rajasthan, wet in Cherrapunji, tropical in Kerala and lush with green in Punjab. Owing to this comple...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Financial services demonstrate the most proven sustainable business models within ICT4D
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Hystra Consulting and Ashoka. A recent study reveals how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can viably provide access to education, healthcare, agro-services and financial services to t...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
An Interview with Orange Money – Part 1
First launched in Côte d’Ivoire in December 2008, Orange Money is also available in Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Kenya, as well as in Botswana and Cameroon. It will soon be launched in Mauritius. At the end of 2011, it reached an important thresho... - mHealth
Cholera, Location Based Information and the Mobile Phone
Cholera, a water born intestinal infection caused by exposure to contaminated food and water, has been largely eradicated from developed countries which have adequate water and sanitation facilities. However, in many parts of the developing world, where access...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money in Haiti: Realizing the promise of a complex new industry
By Vicky Hausman, Yana Watson, Matt Shakhovskoy and Lorenzo Bernasconi from Dalberg – Global Development Advisors. In the aftermath of the earthquake in January 2010, organizations hoping to help Haiti recover were anxious to find innovative ways of deli...
- mLearning
mLearning Programme Blog
Welcome to the first mLearning Programme blog. This blog will be updated regularly with insights, news and general information about the mLearning industry. With mLearning being a relatively new area, especially in a more commercial sense, we hope to provide i...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Geospatial Analysis for Financial Inclusion Tracking
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Karthik Balasubramanian and Jake Kendall from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this blog post, we document the process of using GIS software and spatial data to asses...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2011, a year in review – Part 2
As we start the new year, we are highlighting some of the major events and articles from the MMU blog during the second half of 2011, including the 2011 Annual Report and MMU’s first Latin American case study. 1. GSMA Publish 2011 MMU Annual Report MMU...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Announces Details of NFC & Mobile Money Summit 2012
GSMA Event Places New Focus on Burgeoning Market for NFC Technologies and Services The GSMA today announced that it will hold the new GSMA NFC & Mobile Money Summit October 22-25, 2012 at the Milano Congressi in Milan. With the growing industry momentum...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
BPI Globe Banko launches m-insurance products
Poor people in developing countries live and work in risky environments, vulnerable to illness, accidental death and disability, loss of property due to theft or fire, agricultural losses, and natural and man-made disasters. As a result, the mobile financial...
- Green Power for Mobile
The Green Deployment Tracker
Over the last 2 years, the GPM team have been working hard to populate and track the number of Green Deployments worldwide in order to promote green power and extend mobile beyond the grid. We have aimed to do this by catalysing the deployment of 118,000 susta...
- Green Power for Mobile
Regional Working Group for India and South Asia
Our Regional Working Group for India and South Asia on the 11th October 2011 was a great success! Attended by over 40 organisations, the event hosted great discussion and shared knowledge in an increasingly growing market. Lessons learned from this session in... - Community Power from Mobile
Jatropha: From failed promise to bright future?
At the height of the 2008 oil crisis when emerging market governments were seeking paths to reducing their diesel dependence, Jatropha and biofuels emerged as promising solution. Riding the coat tails of initial successes in India, Jatropha Curcas, considered ...
- Green Power for Mobile
Welcome to the new Green Power for Mobile webpage
Welcome to the new Green Power for Mobile webpage. After months of hard work, we finally have a page which we hope will be educational and informative. We will be keeping this website live with up to date developments from the industry via our new blog, our re...
- mAgri
Bridging the gender gap in agriculture: Can Agricultural VAS address the issue?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published its annual report on The State of Food and Agriculture in 2011, with a focus on Closing the Gender Gap for Development. It analyses the important role women farmers play in poverty r...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Telefónica and MasterCard dance to the beat of Samba
Earlier this year, Telefonica announced it was working with MasterCard to provide mobile financial services to its 87 million customers across 12 Latin American markets. Today, the first of these partnerships comes into being with the formal announcement of ...
- mAgri
The Agri VAS Business Case: Who Will Pay?
One of the trickiest elements we see with building a new business, particularly socially focused businesses, is structuring a financially sustainable and profitable business model. Developing an Agri VAS (Agricultural Value Added Service) is no different. ...
- mAgri
The mFarmer Initiative- supporting the launch of mobile information services for farmers
The mFarmer initiative was launched in June 2011 in recognition of the huge potential for the mobile and agriculture industry to work together to provide in demand and valued services for smallholder farmers through the mobile channel. One of the core probl...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Advent of Mobile Financial Services in Agriculture
As the global population continues to grow – it is expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. It will require a 70% increase in food production above current levels. Most of this increased yield will have to be achieved in less developed countries (LDC...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA announces keynote speakers for MWC 2012
The GSMA today announced that executives from ARM, Best Buy, China Mobile, Citigroup, ISIS, Juniper Networks, Sprint and VimpelCom will be speaking in the keynote programme at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, which will be held 27th February – 1stMarch 2012 a... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
On Channels
The mobile financial service value chain can be disaggregated in a variety of different ways, giving rise to an interesting range of business models. This is good for customers and for the variety of players that seek to play a role in the mobile money for the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Why do mobile money agents get paid less than airtime retailers?
In most markets, if you compare the margin that retailers earn from selling prepaid airtime to the commissions that mobile money agents earn buying or selling e-money, you will find that the former is almost always higher than the latter. This makes recruiting... - mAgri
The GSMA mAgri Programme- who we are and what we’ll be blogging about
Welcome to the brand new mAgri Programme blog. We’ll be using this space to share our insights and our questions about the use of mobile phones in agriculture. It’s a relatively new area but an exciting one as rural communities typically involved in agricu...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Delivering Hope with Mobile Money in Tanzania
Mobile phones have been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in developing countries for quite some time. From remote villages, farmers can access real time crop prices and new mothers can receive neonatal advice over SMS. Since 2009, Vodacom M-PESA and...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Fast Times in the Western Hemisphere
These are interesting times in the Latin American region. Below are some of the latest headlines and highlights: On the regulatory front, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Bolivia have introduced regulation for the provision of mobile financial services paving th...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GPF 2011 ends successfully with the signing of the Maya Declaration on Financial Inclusion
The Global Policy Forum (GPF) 2011– held in Rivera Maya, Mexico–ended successfully with the signing of the Maya Declaration on Financial Inclusion. Members of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion reaffirmed the urgency and importance of financial inclusion...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Informal Pension Schemes powered by Mobile Money
Paying into a pension plan is an important part of financial planning for any of us. In developing countries where social safety nets are less developed, and in some cases do not exist, mobile money can be used as a tool for governments or the informal s...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
FrontlineSMS:Credit: Targeting MFIs and SMEs to maximise the social impact of mobile money
We’ve written previously in our blog about the intersection of mobile money and Microfinance and about innovative microfinance products riding on the rails of mobile money. Last week, Nathan Wyeth, Project Director of FrontlineSMS:Credit, visited our offic...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Innovation in mobile money distribution: real-time electronic reporting on agent performance
Mobile money platforms that rely on networks of cash-in/cash-out agents to take in and pay out cash need that network to be healthy in order to offer customers a compelling value proposition. The lynchpin of channel health is liquidity, but compliance with c...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Risk-sharing effects of Mobile Money
Informal networks in developing countries provide an important means by which individuals and households share risk. However, this coverage is not always 100% comprehensive. Economists find that one of the reasons why this happens is transaction costs. Literal... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Free money transfers in Kenya
One of my first posts for this blog explored how mobile operators could exploit the network effects that characterize mobile money services by “subsidizing” early adopters—that is, by rewarding those who sign up and use a service early with deep discount...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Next: Mobile Savings for the Unbanked
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas, consultant associated with Bankable Frontier Mobile money providers are increasingly pondering the path from payments to savings. If people were comfortable keeping higher e-money balanc...
- Green Power for Mobile
World Economic Forum - Technology Pioneers of 2012!
Associate Member Electro PS has been selected by World Economic Forum as Technology Pioneers of 2012! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/electro-power-systems-selected-as-a-world-economic-forum-technology-pioneer-2012-2011-09-01...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Innovation in mobile money distribution: TigoPesa’s roving agents
As I discussed in a recent blog post, what makes the economics of mobile money so different from the economics of traditional banking is the reduction in costs for cash in, cash out, and transaction processing. The lower these costs are, the lower fees for cus...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Regulating non-bank mobile money service providers
It is no longer the case that Kenya is the only market where mobile money is scaling fast. In two neighbouring countries, Uganda and Tanzania, mobile money is now reaching millions of customers. Two services in particular have grown particularly fast. Who’s ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
New guidance from FATF on AML/CFT and financial inclusion
Last month the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a guidance paper on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures (AML/CFT) and financial inclusion. This is good news for mobile money because it offers national financial services regulators...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Bank branches: not a cost-effective gateway to financial inclusion
Getting cash into and out of banks is expensive. Last year, Clara Veniard at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wrote up the results of a costing exercise conducted with seven service providers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to compare the cost of ser...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
IADB launches Spanish language blog on mobile financial services
The (IDB) Inter-American Development Bank TEC-IN programme in partnership with MMU is launching today a Spanish language blog. http://blog.tec-in.org/ This new blog aims to inform and educate audiences in the Latin-American region about the potential of...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Financial inclusion: not just about bank accounts anymore
Central banks that seek to promote financial inclusion often have an explicit goal to increase the number of customers (or rural customers, or poor customers) that have bank account. It’s easy to understand this policy aim. After all, bank accounts are the f...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money Donations for Drought Victims in East Africa
The vast arid plains of northern Kenya, central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia are suffering one of the worst droughts seen in recent times. Rain has not fal...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Ensuring Quality Customer Experiences at Agents Part 2
This is the second part of the video from MMU’s session on Quality Assurance at the agent Level. in this part, Jennifer Barassa, CEO of Top Image answers questions from the audience regarding the role Top Image plays in M-PESA’s distribution network. ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Ensuring Quality Customer Experiences at Agents Part 1
In these two videos filmed during the last MMU working Group in Singapore, we explore the role that Top Image, a below-the-line field marketing agency, has played in developing and maintaining Safaricom’s successful M-PESA agent network. Top Image performs...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Barriers to Customer Activation: A case study from MTN Uganda
Driving customer activation has become one of the prominent challenges facing mobile money programmes. In this video filmed last month during MMU’s Working Group in Singapore, Yasmina McCarty discusses the key challenges that operators have faced when it com...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
ZONG launches Pakistan’s first Accidental m-Insurance
In the past, we have discussed the potential of new delivery channels to help bring insurance products to the BOP. MNOs have large physical and virtual networks with the potential to reach significant numbers of clients at low cost. On the contrary, insuranc...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
On Harnessing the Power of Financial Inclusion: The Case of Mobile Payments
The development of information and communications technology has opened up the opportunity for providing essential financial services to most people. As we often write in this blog, many mobile money and branchless banking schemes are currently being launche...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile payments in the Philippines: Future Opportunities for Growth
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Salah Goss and Clara Veniard from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation We often hear that M-PESA was able to scale quickly because it targeted an unmet need: urban to rural remi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Publish Case Study on ‘Giros Tigo’ in Paraguay
Today GSMA is publishing a case study on ‘Giros Tigo’, Tigo’s mobile money service in Paraguay. With over 100 live deployments around the world, Mobile Money continues to emerge as a must-have service for operators in emerging markets. However, there h...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group Presentations – MMS Singapore
The MMU team is pleased to share the proceedings from our last working group held on June 27th in Singapore. We have attached the presentations and descriptions from the various sessions and will be posting some videos over the next couple of weeks. Se...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Publish 2011 MMU Annual Report
Over the last 12 months, the mobile money industry has doubled in size; and as the industry has grown, so has our understanding of what it takes to create a successful deployment. This 2011 report contains a selection of important best practices and insights...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2011 MMU Leadership Forum – Promoting Dialogue between Financial Regulators and MNOs
The MMU Leadership Forum took place on Thursday, a day after the conclusion of the GSMA Mobile Money Summit in Singapore. Building on the success of last year’s event, this invitation-only, closed door forum allowed decision makers from financial regulator...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group at MMS Singapore 2011
Yesterday, the city of Singapore was the host of the 7th Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group at the GSMA’s Mobile Money Summit. Over 100 participants from various organizations including MNOs, Banks, and donor agencies discussed the latest happen...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Telefonica Plans Mobile Money Push in LAC
Live from GSMA Mobile Money Summit in Singapore. Telefonica has vowed to learn the lessons from the early mobile money schemes in Asia and Africa as it begins its rollout of mobile financial services across Latin America. Speaking at the GSMA’s Mo...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Exploring Usage of Mobile Money in Uganda
A recent study conducted by researchers from Uganda and Sweden, attempts to identify new ways of using mobile money to help the poor. The team studied mobile money users across three MNOs in Uganda: MTN’s MobileMoney, Uganda Telecom’s M-Sente, and Airte...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Announces mFarmer Initiative Fund
mAgri Programme Aims to Benefit 2 Million Farmers in Developing Countries by 2013 The GSMA announced at the inaugural mAgri Working Group in Cape Town, the launch of the mFarmer Initiative Fund, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundat... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MoMo, a new Mobile Money offering in Vietnam
With Mobile Money Summit being hosted in Singapore in a couple of weeks, we are taking an in depth look at the status of mobile money in the South East Asian region. In this post, we focus on Vietnam, one of the most promising emerging markets in the world....
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Domestic remittance flows having a positive impact on liquidity management in Paraguay
Even though there has been a notable absence of mobile money programs in Latin America, 2011 seems to finally be the year when a number of MNOs in both Central and South America are readying for launches. In an upcoming MMU case study on Mobile Money in La...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Safaricom – 56% Growth in M-PESA revenue
Last week, Safaricom announced its annual results. It has confirmed an increased turnover (+12.9% to Ksh. 94.83bn). However, after several years of sustained growth, Safaricom experienced a 12.4% drop in profits before tax due to increased competition. N...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Esther Duflo, co-author of “Poor Economics” Part 2.
In light of the recent publication of “Poor Economics”, the new book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, MMU caught up with Dr. Duflo to discuss some relevant themes to help our readers understand the broader impact of mobile financial services in the...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Dr. Esther Duflo, co-author of “Poor Economics”
In light of the recent publication of “Poor Economics”, the new book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, MMU caught up with Dr. Duflo to discuss some relevant themes to help our readers understand the broader impact of mobile financial services in the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Announces Speakers for Mobile Money Summit 2011 in Singapore
Industry executives highlight the rising power of mobile money The GSMA today announced speakers for the GSMA Mobile Money Summit 2011, which will be held 27-30 June at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. The agenda features thought-leading conference...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Deployment Tracker reaches 100 live deployments
The GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme (MMU) was launched to accelerate the availability of mobile money services to the unbanked and those living on less than US$2 per day. Supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MMU has t...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
AFI & G24 promote financial inclusion during World Bank Spring Meetings
With the purpose of promoting financial inclusion among G24 member countries and other emerging economies, The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the G24 held the Third Annual G24/AFI Roundtable on Financial Inclusion Policy last month in Washington D....
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
IMTFI publish final report on mobile money in Haiti
In November 2010, Digicel and Voilá both made mobile money services publicly available in Haiti. This final report published by The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion at UC Irvine presents an analysis of how the new mobile money services ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Globe G-Cash and UN World Food Programme Making A Difference
The World Food Programme (WFP) Philippines, in partnership with Globe G-Cash, piloted a disbursement for typhoon victims last year, ending December 2010. We’ve asked previously whether the mobile money platform is an efficient mechanism of distributing... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
World Bank Group Publishes: Protecting Mobile Money Against Financial Crimes
The World Bank Group recently released a new book entitled “Protecting mobile money Against Financial Crimes: Global Policy Challenges and Solutions.” The book is a guide to preserving the integrity of mobile banking, which is revolutionizing the way finan...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Resisting the Devil: Using Mobile Money in Haiti
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Dr. Espelencia Baptiste from the Haitian mobile money Blog at the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) As I boarded a plane bound for Haiti in December 2010, I received a ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Networks Want to Connect
A couple of weeks ago, Ignacio Mas from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wrote a guest post on the topic of interoperability of mobile money. At this year’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group in Barcelona, he also gave a very interesting pr...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Small Business Might Be Big Business for Mobile Money
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Jake Kendall from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Next Billion. Mobile money is usually marketed as a way for workers in urban settings to send money home and suppo... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
mi-Life, Mobile Microinsurance in Ghana
MTN Ghana, Hollard Insurance, MicroEnsure, and MFS Africa have launched today an innovative mobile money insurance product called “mi-Life” We have written previously how insurance designed to serve low-income clients is an effective tool in poverty al...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tigo Money Launches in Central America
Last month, Tigo Money launched in Guatemala and Honduras. The MMU team had a chance to catch up with Juan Carlos Arriaga, Head of Mobile Financial Services in Guatemala to discuss about their new product and the challenges and opportunities in rolling out...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
World Economic Forum launches 2011 MFS Development Report
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by William Hoffman and Sjoerd Nikkelen from the World Economic Forum. Today we launched the Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011. Providing an analysis of more than 100 variables across 20...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Evelyn Stark on the Importance of Marketing Mobile Money
We recently published a guide to driving customer usage of mobile money for the unbanked. In this guide, The MMU team highlighted the key challenges that operators have faced when it comes to customer activation for mobile money and identifies the tactics that...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Three Enemies and a Silver Bullet
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At the MMU working group in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, Seema joked that last year I declared ca...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
PlaNet Finance and Oliver Wyman publish report on mobile microfinance
PlaNet Finance and Oliver Wyman launch a report of mobile microfinance during Mobile World Congress 2011. The report, “Beyond Payments – Next Generation Mobile Banking for the Masses” is the result of a joint effort and was funded by the Bill and Mel...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Rising Power of Mobile Money: Mobile Money Summit 2011 Singapore, 27-30th June
As the mobile money industry continues to grow, this has lead to increased access to financial services as well as the development of new financial instruments around the world. Now, more than ever before, Mobile Money products and services are on the rise. ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Releases Report on Driving Customer Usage of Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Last week at its Working Group at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme released a new article on marketing mobile money. With nearly 100 mobile money services now deployed, the industry is increasingly focused on the ...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The MMU blog has a makeover
The MMU site re-launches with a user-friendly & improved design. We want to make it easier for you to get a quick overview of the trending issues within mobile money, in addition to accessing the latest publications, blogs and insight. The new desi...
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
We want to hear about your success
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Mireya Almazan, Associate Program Officer and Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. What are you doing to help poor people expand their rang... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Summary and Presentations from the 6th MMU Working Group
The MMU team is pleased to share the proceedings from our last working group held on February 16th in Barcelona during the 2011 Mobile World Congress. We have attached the presentations and highlights from the various sessions. In addition, we will be posti... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Preview of 6th MMU working group at Mobile World Congress 2011
Barcelona is buzzing at the moment with the inauguration of the 2011 Mobile World Congress. The MMU team is very excited to share with the industry and our partners our latest research and insights on mobile money for the unbanked. The event tomorrow will c... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Complimentary Public Policy Goals: Financial Inclusion and Financial Integrity
The globally acknowledged standard setting body for anti-money laundering and the fight against terrorist financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has only recently acknowledged that financial inclusion and financial integrity (i.e. the prevention... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Hosts Webinar on Mobile Money Pricing and Commissions - Part 2 TBD
This is the second part of the GSMA webinar on the topic of mobile money pricing and commisions . This interactive session was designed to help mobile money practitioners capture best practices from deployments around the world. In this post, we are sharing th... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Hosts Webinar on Mobile Money Pricing and Commissions - Part 1
On December 14th, the MMU programme at the GSMA hosted a webinar on the topic of mobile money pricing and commissions. This interactive session was designed to help mobile money practitioners capture best practices from deployments around the world. In this fi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Operator-bank partnerships: a case study featuring Safaricom and Equity Bank - Part 2
At the recent MMU working group in Kuala Lumpur, John Staley, director of shared services at Equity Bank, and Waceke Mbugua, head of M-PESA marketing, shared with the group how they worked together to forge M-KESHO. This is the second and final part of the cas... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Operator-bank partnerships: a case study featuring Safaricom and Equity Bank - Part 1
At the end of “Mapping and Effectively Structuring Operator-Bank Relationships to Offer mobile money for the Unbanked,” we include a case study that traces the history of Safaricom’s engagement with banks in Kenya as M-PESA evolved. In the early days, ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Bank-led or operator-led? Sometimes, it’s in the eye of the beholder
Banks and operators have come together in a wide variety of configurations in order to offer mobile money for the unbanked. In our research for “Mapping and Effectively Structuring Operator-Bank Relationships to Offer Mobile Money for the Unbanked” we fo... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money in Tanzania: Is it reaching the BOP?
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by David Montez, Research Analyst with InterMedia’s AudienceScapes project. Mobile money in Kenya, led by Safaricom’s pioneering M-PESA product, has set a standard of success and reach by which depl... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Are relationships between banks and operators to offer mobile money for the unbanked real partnerships?
At the 2010 Leadership Forum for mobile network operators and financial regulators in Rio de Janeiro, one attendee made a provocative suggestion during a discussion about operator-bank partnerships: “The premise of partnership is a premise. A bank could just... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Mobile Money for the Unbanked Value Chain
The heart of the new MMU article “Mapping and Effectively Structuring Operator-Bank Relationships to Offer Mobile Money for the Unbanked” is an inventory of all of the activities that must be performed in order to offer mobile money for the unbanked, and t... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Lance ses Publications en Français
Le programme « MMU: Mobile Money for the Unbanked » (en Français « argent mobile destiné aux personnes non bancarisées ») du GSMA a pour objectif d’accélérer l’accès aux services d’argent mobile des personnes non bancarisées. Nous cherc... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Citi Global Transaction Services and the GSMA Hosted Mobile Money Policy Forum in Kenya
Citi Global Transaction Services and the GSMA hosted a conference in Nairobi in December titled “ Mobile Money Policy Forum: Partnerships for Financial Inclusion in Africa”. The two-day event was designed to discuss regulatory frameworks to enable mobile c... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A new MMU article on the relationships between banks and mobile operators
Offering a mobile money service for the unbanked requires the participation of both a bank and a mobile operator. That means these two parties need to align on what parts of the mobile money value chain each will carry out, agree on a way of working with each ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2010, a Year in Review
Please find below some of the highlights from the MMU Blog in 2010 1. MMU Launches Mobile Money Deployment Tracker MMU launched in January the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker. This interactive tool was designed to track the number of live and pl... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Sharing the pain, sharing the cash merchants
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Mireya Almazan, Associate Program Officer and Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Building and managing a cash merchant network is the lea... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Building Peace: One Mobile at a Time
There is a lot of optimism about the use of mobiles in the peace-building sector and in particular mobile money bringing financial services to the poor. While there is widespread reach of mobile phones in post-conflict countries—Afghanistan has 13 million ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Getting the word out: The Global Savings Forum and new research from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas and Sheila Miller from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Financial Services for the Poor team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sees as its core... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Microfinance 2.0
Earlier this year, we discussed the potential of the intersection of microfinance and mobile money. Microfinance is the provision of financial services to the unbanked and can include access to credit and savings services as well as more advanced products su... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Impact of Taxes on Mobile Growth
The GSMA has commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake a report examining the impact of mobile air time taxes in East Africa. It builds upon a previous report from 2007, and aims to analyse the impact of lowering and removing mobile specific taxes levied ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The State of Mobile Money in Latin America: An Interview with YellowPepper
Founded in 2004, YellowPepper is a provider of mobile financial services in Latin America. More than 2 million customers in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Haiti and Panama use YellowPepper technology to access their bank accou... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
What operational metrics should an MNO monitor and manage?
Before a mobile money service can turn a profit, it must first be operationally healthy. This may sound obvious (okay, it definitely sounds obvious), but today many mobile money practitioners are unable to report with clarity whether their service is operation... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Is SIM Registration a backtrack on tiered KYC?
When we write about ID requirements, we cover financial regulator’s often overly burdensome Know-Your-Customer (KYC – regulations that force financial institutions to verify a person’s identity with a passport or ID card). A new trend is emerging in tele... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The adoption and impact of M-PESA: a first look at some new data
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Billy Jack from Georgetown University’s Economics Department and Tavneet Suri from MIT’s Sloan School of Management The diffusion of M-PESA in the Kenyan economy has been rapid and deep. While ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How can MNOs ensure their tariff and commission models are well designed?
Note: For more information on pricing and commissions, please join Neil Davidson and Paul Leishman for a Webinar on December 14th at 9:00am BST. To register for this webinar, please email mmu@gsm.org For a mobile money service to scale and achieve profitab... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
E-Money Regulation that is Enabling: News from the UK
Exciting changes are underway in the European Union. European governments are developing laws and regulations to promote the use of non-bank accounts (i.e. e-money). This is good news for mobile money. The UK, for example, is now consulting the public on its p... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money: The Global Perspective
In this video from Mobile World Live, various experts from the mobile money ecosystem including Zahir Khoja from Roshan, Aletha Ling from Fundamo, and Mark Pickens from CGAP share their insights on recent developments in the industry. ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How can an MNO manage costs to achieve profitability?
When most people hear the phrase “to turn a profit, we need to manage our costs”, they usually take it to mean “to turn a profit, we need to reduceour costs”. But when it comes to mobile money, practitioners have found that some costs can be done away ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Helping Haiti: an Interview with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Since we last wrote about the potential of using mobile money to deliver humanitarian assistance in Pakistan, Digicel and Voila have announced in September their intention to enter the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) Competition. The HMMI is a partnersh... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group Presentations – Kuala Lumpur
The MMU team is pleased to share the proceedings from our last working group held on October 5th and 6th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We have attached the presentations and descriptions from the various sessions. In addition, we will be posting some vi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How Significant are Direct Revenues to Profitability?
So far on this blog, we’ve written about the role that indirect benefits play in enabling a mobile network operator (MNO) to turn a profit from a mobile money service – but what about the most obvious source of value, direct revenue from customer fees? Aft... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How Significant is ARPU Uplift to Profitability?
In my last post, I wrote about the significance of churn reduction benefits to the profitability case for mobile money; and when people talk about indirect benefits, ‘reduction in churn’ is usually closely followed in the same sentence by ‘uplift in ARPU... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How significant are churn reduction benefits to profitability?
If you’ve ever attended a mobile money conference, you’ve likely heard a speaker tout the potential benefit of ‘reduced churn’ that mobile money can unlock for an MNO. But what you probably haven’t heard is whether any service has actually delivered ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group, Kuala Lumpur: Summary of Day 2
We have wrapped up the second and final day of panels and interactive discussions at the MMU Kuala Lumpur working group where one the key themes was how to successfully market mobile money. We also discussed bill payments, international remittances and e-money... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How Significant are Airtime Distribution Savings to Profitability?
One of the most important sources of value for mobile network operators (MNOs) who offer mobile money services is the ability to sell airtime using the platform. When a customer buys airtime using mobile money rather than with scratch cards, operators unlock v... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group – Kuala Lumpur: Summary of Day 1
We’ve had a superb first day at the 5th MMU Working Group here in Kuala Lumpur. Here are some of the highlights from the presentations and discussions:- Is there money in mobile money? Yes there is. MMU unveiled some of its latest research, drawing heavi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How much must an MNO invest in mobile money before turning a profit?
In my last post I began to describe MTN Uganda’s MobileMoney, a service that has turned an exciting corner into cash-flow positive territory. But the CFO of any mobile network operator (MNO) knows that simply getting out of the red on a month-to-month basis ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Is There Really Any Money in Mobile Money?
From Afghanistan to Zambia, mobile network operators (MNOs) in developing countries are launching mobile money services at a rapid pace. Yet while their enthusiasm to enter this business is clear – to date 83 deployments have been launched and another 82 are... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Scaling Mobile Money
Today, we’re sharing “Scaling Mobile Money” a new article by Dan Radcliffe and Ignacio Mas from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This article provides their perspective on one of the many challenges that arise when scaling up a mobile money deplo... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Innovation in Health Microinsurance and Savings
Juliet Agutu, a domestic worker in Nairobi recently delivered her first child at Pumwani, the country’s largest maternal hospital. Like many mothers-to-be in the developing world, Juliet was worried about not having the appropriate medical facilities or th... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money Launches in Central Africa: An Interview with MTN Cameroon
In February 2010, GSMA hosted the Central African Mobile Money Roundtable. The Focus of this event was to share information and experiences regulating mobile money with the Banque des États de l’Afrique centrale (BEAC), which is the financial services regu... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
One step forward as RBI awards semi-closed mobile wallet license
This week, the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Mr. K C Chakrabarty announced that RBI was granting the first license for a semi closed Bharti Airtel. The news comes just weeks after RBI announced at its annual monetary policy briefing, that it ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
What Regulators Really Want – When Applying for a License
Over the past few weeks we have been looking into different countries’ regulatory practices for e-money issuers. E-money is what is stored in customer and agent wallets in mobile money services around the world. Given the lower risk that e-money entails, reg... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU announces 5th Working Group in Kuala Lumpur
Mobile operators will descend on the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the 5th MMU Working Group taking place during the 5th and 6th of October. Following the success of Mobile Money Summit in Rio, we will be sharing our latest learnings with the industry ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Segunda Entrega de Publicaciones en Español de MMU
Hoy es la segunda entrega de publicaciones en español del programa MMU y nos enfocaremos en la parte comercial: Primero que todo tenemos la guia sobre redes de agentes. Construir, Incentivar y Administrar una Red de Agentes de Dinero Móvil: Un Manual para... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Lanza Publicaciones en Español Sobre el Dinero Móvil
Hoy, América Latina y el Caribe muestran avances prometedores. La penetración móvil está llegando al 100% en muchos de nuestros países y el crecimiento económico ha superado significativamente los promedios históricos. Sostener el progreso depende... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money and the Demand for Banking
“Are banks dead?” asked Gavin Krugel at this year’s Mobile Money Summit. Variations of this question been posed by provocateurs in the mobile money world for years. Is it possible that mobile money services will solve so many of its users’ financial ch... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Regulating New Banking Models that can Bring Financial Services to All
Our team often writes on this blog about the role of mobile network operators (MNOs) in providing mobile financial services. But what about the role of banks? Are they to be replaced by MNOs and their branches discarded? No, says Claire Alexandre, Ignacio Mas ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Will Mobile Money Bring Microinsurance to the Poor?
Matu Onyango is a farmer in the region of Nanyuki, 250 km north of Nairobi. His family’s welfare depends solely on the income derived from maize crops. During the last drought that afflicted the region, not only did his crop suffer, but one of his four chi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Can Pakistan’s flood victims find hope in mobile money?
Pakistan is facing an enormous humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the country’s worst flooding in its history—indeed, a crisis in terms of victims that is now larger than the last three devastating natural disasters combined (the Asian Tsunami, the 20... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Getting the Agent Commission Model Right
By now, most mobile money practitioners recognize that for a service to succeed, the agents that support it need to be making money. In recent months, we’ve written about how mobile network operators have carefully managed their customer/ agent ratios over t... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Hidden Costs of Inactive Users
Around the world, mobile money deployments are racking up large numbers of new customers. But as certain commentators have noted, these numbers are sometimes misleading. In some deployments, a gap is opening up between the number of registered users and the nu... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Structuring Win-Win Partnerships Between Banks and MNOs
By now it’s a well-known fact: strategic alliances in general are complex to structure, and harder to manage. This is especially true when stakeholders are large, powerful, and from different industries with fundamentally distinct business models, as the cas... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
USAID Releases Mobile Financial Services Risk Matrix
Mobile Financial Services offer significant opportunities for improving the efficiency of financial services by expanding access and lowering transaction costs. The explosive growth of use of mobile money has had the unintended benefit of increasing public i... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Publishes Glossary of Mobile Money Terminology
To welcome newcomers to mobile money, to facilitate effective dialogue among industry participants, and to communicate with the public and other stakeholders, the Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme is today releasing a set of definitions of mobile money t... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Methodology for Assessing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks
Mobile money services are emerging all over the world and financial regulators are unfamiliar with the money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks arising from these new services. The current anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terr... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2010 Leadership Forum at MMS in Rio de Janeiro
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by David Colby Reed, a graduate student at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Policy. Due to its timing at the end of the conference, the day-long Leadership Forum was a good venue for distilling some of t... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Working Group Presentations – Rio de Janeiro
The MMU team is pleased to share the proceedings from our last working group held on May 24th in Rio. We have attached the presentations and descriptions from the various sessions. Please note that sessions 5 and 7 were panels and did not use any presenta... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-KESHO in Kenya
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director in the Financial Services for the Poor program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A financial inclusion holy alliance in Kenya: Equity Bank accounts riding on M-... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Publish 2010 Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report
Today the GSMA is publishing our 2010 Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the last year has been a busy one for our programme – and this report catalogues our key pieces of work, including a... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2010 Mobile Money Summit – Day 1: Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group
Today, the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro has been the host of the 5th Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group. The MMU Programme is at its midpoint and since its inception in February 2009, we have not only built a strong grant portfolio of over 19 proj... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Protecting Customers and Operators from the Abuse of Mobile Money Services
Before launching a mobile money service, it behoves operators to think carefully about how to prevent abuse that would harm customers. Such foresight helps assure regulators that the service will be safe and in turn safeguards the operator from reputational ri... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA publish Part 3 of the Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Manage a Network of Mobile Money Agents
Today the MMU team is delighted to release the final section of our handbook on mobile money agent networks: Managing a Mobile Money Agent Network. This instalment discusses managing a network of mobile money agents on an ongoing basis. In this article, we ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Publishes Case Study on Zain’s Zap
Today GSMA is publishing a case study on ‘Zap’, Zain’s mobile money service that was introduced in February 2009. In just over a year, Zap has been deployed in Bahrain, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Niger, Malawi and Uganda. But while Zain’s de... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Banking with Decency – Subtle yet Significant Benefits of Branchless Banking for Women
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Valerie Rozycki, Head of Strategic Initiatives at mChek. A low-income woman walks into a bank branch in Bangalore, India, with the intention of opening a bank account. Mubeena Taj does not speak ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile money substitutes and the basis of competition
In a recent post, I discussed how demand for different services shapes the success of mobile money deployments, and suggested how these conditions might vary across markets. Today I want to address another crucial determinant of the success of mobile money dep... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money for Women – Business case and strategies for using mobile money to close the gender gap for mobile services
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Valerie Rozycki, Head of Strategic Initiatives at mChek. During the summer of 2009 , an extensive research initiative led by mChek was conducted amongst low-income urban and rural residents in Southe... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Part 2 of GSMA Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Incentivise a Network of Mobile Money Agents
Today we are publishing the second section of the GSMA handbook on agent networks, entitled “How to Incentivise a Network of Mobile Money Agents”. In this section, we seek to answer a broad question: how can mobile network operators design a set of incenti... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Publishes Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Build, Incentivise and Manage a Network of Mobile Money Agents
Over the last several years, distribution has proven one of the most difficult pieces of the mobile money business to get right. Even with the accumulated experience of distributing airtime in their markets-often through thousands of retailers-mobile network o... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Spotlight on Latin America: Colombia
In spite of Colombia’s tumultuous political history, President Alvaro Uribe’s democratic security policy and pro-market reforms have resulted in an enhanced investment climate and burgeoning telecom market. Between 2003 and 2008, Colombia grew as never see... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Pakistan’s Shared Platform: An Interview with MCB and Fundamo
If you weren’t at Mobile World Congress, you would have missed a very interesting co-presentation from Qasif Shahid, EVP at MCB Bank and Aletha Ling, Executive Director at Fundamo. Qasif and Aletha provided an overview of MCB Mobile, which launched in June 2... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
How Zain’s Zap is Improving Coke’s Distribution Model
When you put mobile money enthusiasts in a room and ask them to talk about distribution, it’s only a matter of time before someone brings up Coca Cola. In the ensuing conversation, Coke is usually praised for their distribution prowess and held up as a model... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Beyond P2P Transfers
It used to be that mobile money was synonymous with domestic p2p transfers – the “killer app” that propelled Safaricom’s M-PESA to such extraordinary success. It was clear that Safaricom had tapped a rich vein of latent demand for a safe and affordable... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Spotlight on Latin America: The Southern Cone
In this second entry to our spotlight on Latin America series we will explore the southern cone. Comprised of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, this is a highly diverse group which overall exhibits the highest HDI (Human Development Index) of Latin Ameri... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Spotlight on the Active User Rate: What Deployments are Seeing and How They're Responding
The mobile industry is a bit obsessed with metrics. We’ve got one for every phase of the customer lifecycle, from cost of acquisition (COA) to average revenue per user (ARPU) to cost of retention (COR) to name just a few. It seems, though, that from our endl... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MMU Deployment Tracker Update
It’s only been two months since the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker was launched and we are already seeing a noticeable increase in the number of live and planned deployments worldwide. This interactive tool was designed to track the number of mobile mo... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Q&A: 2010 Mobile Money Summit (May 24-27) in Rio de Janeiro
With the Mobile Money Summit fast approaching, I’ve spent a few minutes addressing some of the questions that were posed to the GSMA team most frequently in Barcelona. If you have other questions beyond the ones below, feel free to post a comment. Q: I’... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money Spotlight on Latin America
In May 2010, the Mobile Money Summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While the event has a global remit, it will provide a unique opportunity to highlight the coming of age of Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) in Latin America. In anticipation of the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Hosts Central African Mobile Money Roundtable – Focus on Regional Regulation
On Tuesday in Yaounde, we hosted the GSMA Central African Mobile Money Roundtable. This was the first regional event of its kind hosted by the GSMA, and it was designed to share information and experiences regulating mobile money with BEAC, the financial servi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Consumer Protections Built Into Branchless Banking
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by A. Michael Tarazi, Senior Policy Specialist at CGAP. As regulators confront the challenges of regulating branchless banking, protecting the consumer is often their primary concern. And for good reas... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2010 Mobile World Congress: Day 2 of Mobile Money in Review
Today was day number two of Mobile World Congress, and for me (and most readers of our blog), the highlight had to be the MMU Working Group. Mobile operators, vendors and other industry stakeholders convened to exchange learnings in our full-day interactive se... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
2010 Mobile World Congress: Day 1 of Mobile Money in Review
The first day of the 2010 Mobile World Congress has officially come to a close. Today was an eventful day for anyone interested in mobile money: this year, we introduced ‘ Mobile Money Monday’, an action packed day filled with presentations and panels from... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2010
Barcelona will take on a distinctly mobile flavour next week, as 50,000 people descend on the Catalan capital for GSMA Mobile World Congress. Monday will be devoted to mobile money, and our 4th MMU Working Group will take place on Tuesday. When the MMU Prog... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
New GSMA Case Study on Thailand’s True Money
Today, we’re publishing a case study that compares Thailand’s True Money with the industry’s best known success story, M-PESA. Launched in 2005, True Money is now used by 6 million customers. The system processes over USD$900 million in electronic pay... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Why and How to Engage Microfinance Institutions for your Mobile Money Deployment
This is a guest post, from Amitabh Saxena. Amitabh started the Alternative Channels workstream at ACCION in 2006 after spending several years in developing credit card products for Capital One’s Innovation Center. He has worked in strategy and implementat... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Insights on Grameenphone’s BillPay: the Market, Model, and Agent Value Proposition
Recently I caught up with Azad Delwar Hossain, Head of Financial Services for Grameenphone in Bangladesh. Grameenphone launched a service called ‘BillPay’ in 2006, which allows customers to pay utility bills over the counter, or through an e-wallet. In thi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Globe Announces Big Change to GCASH Agent Network
Globe recently announced that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved their request to use Globe Telecom Sub Distributors as GCASH outlets. Building on Globe’s announcement to launch BanKO in late 2009, this announcement marks the start to what wi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Intersection of Mobile Money and Microfinance
Over the past three decades, microfinance has given millions of people access to financial services for the first time. As such, it’s exciting to watch how mobile money providers and microfinance institutions are starting to work together to improve further ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Launches Mobile Money Deployment Tracker
Today we launched the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker. This new interactive tool has been designed to track the number of live and planned mobile money deployments targeting the unbanked segment, and present relevant data on the models and countries in w... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Meeting the Microsavings Challenge
n December, we shared an article by Ignacio Mas that described how microfinance is being ‘reframed’. That is, until now microfinance has implied micro ‘funding’ of poor clients with loans, whereas many now recognize that going forward, microsavings wil... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tameer Microfinance Bank and Telenor Provide Insights on easypaisa
The launch of Pakistan’s ‘easypaisa’ by Telenor and Tameer Microfinance Bank was one of the most exciting deployments of 2009. Targeting the massive unbanked segment and initially supported by a network of 2,000 agents, it’s not surprising that easypai... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Reframing Microfinance: Enabling Small Savings and Payments, Everywhere
I’m pleased to share an article recently written by Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation are supporters of the MMU Programme and similarly strong advocates for savings.... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Revisiting RICA – The Issue of SIM Registration
In August we reported that South Africa was revising their RICA provisions to prohibit mobile network operators from registering new SIM cards without first capturing the customer’s identity. We’re now seeing the first signs of how this implementation of m... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A Closer Look at ‘Splash’ in Sierra Leone
I recently had a conversation with Ben Farren, Director of Splash Mobile Money Ltd., to learn how Sierra Leone’s first mobile money deployment has been progressing since it launched 10 weeks ago. Splash is privately held and their model isn’t ‘led’ by ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Managing the Active Rate: Solutions to 3 Common Challenges
Whenever a mobile money deployment announces customer numbers, the first question people typically ask is ‘yes, but how many of those customers are active’? It’s a fair question. Active user rates vary across deployments and have an enormous impact on pr... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A Further USD$2 Million Awarded to Six New Grant Recipients of the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Programme
The Mobile Money for the Unbanked Programme has awarded grants to AKTEL in Bangladesh, Dialog Telekom PLC in Sri Lanka, Grameenphone Ltd in Bangladesh, MTN Cameroon, MTN Uganda and Vodacom Tanzania. This is in addition to the grants that were already announced... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tactics for Tipping Markets: Influence Perceptions and Expectations
A few posts ago, I asked you to think about how much you would have been willing to pay for the very first fax machine had you been given the option to buy it. I argued that, absent any foreknowledge about how popular fax machines were going to become, you wou... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tactics for Tipping Markets: Market Segmentation
My last couple of posts might have been a bit discouraging, particularly if you’re a shareholder of a mobile network operator that’s trying to roll out mobile money. The idea of deferring profitability for years, in the hope that you’ll sign up enough us... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Tactics for Tipping Markets: Subsidize Early Adopters
In my last post, I said that network effects are apparent when the users of a given network care about how many other users are in the same network. Put more formally, this means that willingness to pay for access to a network is a function of how many other u... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Understanding (and Exploiting) Network Effects in Mobile Money
It’s often said that mobile money is a brand new business model. Neither traditional value-added services offered by mobile network operators nor financial services offered by bricks-and mortar-banks are very helpful as models when trying to think through th... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money in the Philippines – The Market, The Models and Regulation
The following case study offers a comprehensive view into the regulation, service, and ecosystem design that has led to the current state of play for mobile money in the Philippines. To be sure, the market is one of the most advanced in the world, but in recen... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Belgacom ICS and RBS MOU: What it Means for Mobile Operators
This week Belgacom ICS and RBS announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the facilitation of foreign currency exchange for mobile remittances. The MOU increases the flexibility in the Homesend international remittance product offered by... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Unbankable Identities? ID as a Challenge at the Base of the Pyramid
ID systems in developing countries attract a lot of attention from the financial inclusion sector. And for good reason – in many cases they can be a key factor contributing to the uptake of mobile money. In recent months, there have been some big announcemen... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MTN Mobile Money – Spotlight on Ghana
Earlier this week I spoke with Bruno Akpaka from MTN Mobile Money in Ghana. MTN have rapidly grown the network of MTN Mobile Money merchants using a unique approach that is closely linked to their partnership with 9 banks in Ghana. Similarly exciting is the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Launch of Mobile Money Video Directory
Today we launched a new feature on the blog – the mobile money video directory. Click on the ‘Videos’ link at left to check it out. There are already more than 50 videos in the directory, and this number will continue to grow. Videos in this directory ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Telenor Launches ‘easypaisa’ in Pakistan
Telenor Pakistan and Tameer Microfinance Bank yesterday announced the launch of ‘easypaisa’, described as ‘a uniquely convenient and safe way for the people of Pakistan to carry out financial transactions.’ This is the latest chapter in Telenor’s str... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Seeking Fertile Grounds for Mobile Money
In the wake of mobile money featuring on the cover of The Economist, many are surely asking where the next success story will come from. In this article, Ignacio Mas and Amrik Heyer analyse the environmental dynamics affecting the uptake of mobile money. The a... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
MTN Mobile Money: Spotlight on Uganda
Earlier this week I spoke with Richard Mwami, Head of MTN Mobile Money in Uganda. Richard described the model that MTN has taken to market in the country, the agent network that has been built, and the growth they have experienced to date. — Paul L... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Highlights from 2009 Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum
The Alliance of Financial Inclusion (AFI) is a newly established organisation aimed at enabling 50 million people living on less than $2 a day to have access to formal financial services by 2012. AFI is managed by GTZ and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates F... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Closer to Goal of Creating Financial Security for 20m Unbanked by 2012
The GSMA is providing grants to operators in order to accelerate mobile money deployments around the world. Today, we are able to announce the first four of these operators who will receive grants; these are AXIS in Indonesia, Oi Paggo in Brazil, Roshan in Afg... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Rise of Mobile Money in Asia
For some time, mobile money news has been dominated by activity in Africa: announcements by group operators with a presence in the region such as MTN, Vodafone, Zain, Orange and Orascom have been hogging the international headlines. The notable exceptions to t... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Article from Ignacio Mas – The Economics of Branchless Banking
Agent distribution and the economics of branchless banking is a topic of great importance to the great work in this field, and today I’m pleased to share an important article from Ignacio Mas of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Originally published i... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-PAISA Part 2: Interview with Zahir Khoja
This is the second part of my conversation with Zahir Khoja. In this segment, Zahir describes the significance of the phrase ‘The Hawala on your Mobile’, the market conditions that were taken into account when designing M-PAISA, the process and importance ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Learnings from M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania
The mobile money community has watched (and compared) the adoption of M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania with great interest. We're pleased this month to offer an article from Gunnar Camner and Emil Sjoblom from Valuable Bits, and Caroline Pulver from FSD Kenya, whi... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Roamware Acquires Macalla – Industry Investment in Mobile Money for the Unbanked Continues
I’m writing this blog post from Shanghai, where the GSMA Asia Pacific conference is taking place. As delegates were pouring back into the conference hall after the mid morning tea break, I was handed a piece of paper by one of the hostesses – all in Chines... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-PAISA: Zahir Khoja Describes the Challenges and Opportunities of Launching Mobile Money in Afghanistan
Earlier this week I had an opportunity to speak with Zahir Khoja, Executive Director – Mobile Money (M-PAISA) at Roshan. As the world’s focus turns once again to Afghanistan during the country’s elections process, I wanted to get Zahir’s perspective on... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Panel Discussion with Jojo Malolos and Rizza Maniego-Eala at the Mobile Money Summit
The following is a partial transcript of a panel discussion held at the Mobile Money Summit in June 2009 featuring Jojo Malolos of SMART Money and Rizza Maniego-Eala from G-Xchange. Jojo and Rizza address timely issues surrounding mobile money, including: -... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Filipino Mobile Money User – A Unique Profile
Our recent survey in the Philippines suggests that the early adopters of mobile money are unique in two important ways: the way that they use of voice and data services, and the frequency that they purchase load. MM Users Send/Receive More SMSs and Phone C... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Importance of Network Quality in Mobile Money
Earlier in the year, the GSMA and our friends at CGAP conducted a consumer survey in the Philippines, one of the most advanced markets for mobile money. To understand some of the factors that contribute to mobile money adoption, we spoke to over 1,000 unbanked... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Mobile Money Exchange: Q&A
The GSMA announced the launch of the Mobile Money Exchange initiative at this year’s Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona. In advance of the Exchange’s release by Q4 2009, Reed Peterson, Director of Business Development at the GSMA, has addressed some common q... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money: a book to read, and two videos to watch
In keeping with the theme established at the Barcelona MMU working group of ‘understanding the mobile money customer’, I’ve posted some suggested reading and viewing material. The book, Portfolios of the Poor, and two videos from the Philippines provide ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile Money News Headlines
Orascom Telecom announces launch of mobile financial services in Pakistan GSMA introduces premier online community for mobile money Zain and Western Union mobile money transfer alliance... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA Mobile Money Leadership Forum convenes financial regulators and the mobile industry
The first annual Mobile Money Leadership Forum was held in Barcelona on 25 June, 2009. To our knowledge this was the first event of this size designed to promote dialogue between financial regulators and the mobile industry. The event was attended by over 70 p... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
8 Interesting Numbers From the GSMA Mobile Money Summit
The GSMA Mobile Money Summit concluded moments ago in Barcelona. The 2-day event was filled with presentations designed to help attendees understand and execute on the mobile money opportunity. In the closing session, several people noted the contrast between ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
A perspective on the Barcelona MMU Working Group
Jenny Hoffman, RiskFrontier Consultants, attended the June MMU Working Group in Barcelona. She has summarized below some key themes from the sessions. Her report is a good reflection of the tone and organization of the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Adoption Driver No.3 – Registered and ready to use in 5 minutes or less
This is the final post in our series on customer adoption leading up to the Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona. The previous posts mapped to the first two steps in the adoption framework that will be released in the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report: d... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Adoption Driver No.2 – A service for ‘people like me’
This is the second post in our series on customer adoption leading up to the Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona. The previous post introduced the importance of driving service awareness and understanding as enablers of adoption. This post addresses the importanc... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Adoption Driver No.1 – Driving Awareness… and Understanding
Leading up to the Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona next week, I will be writing a series of posts on ‘adoption drivers’ that have emerged from the CGAP-GSMA Mobile Money Market Sizing Study. These drivers are part of an adoption framework that will be expa... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Understanding the Mobile Money Customer: an Interview with John the Taxi Driver
The video interview below was conducted with John, a Nairobi taxi driver and regular user of M-PESA. Seema Desai and I quizzed him about why he uses M-PESA, what he would improve, and whether he has ever had difficulties sending or withdrawing money via an age... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Industry's Favourite Regulatory Solution: South Africa's AML Regulation
Each Quarterly Update will feature one proposal for ‘industry’s favourite regulatory solution’. Our goal is to feature good examples of regulation which already exist in the market as a starting point for discussion. In each feature, we will explain whic... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobilising Money Through Enabling Regulation
An enabling environment is one that allows, and may even encourage, the introduction and development of new business models that meet a defined public policy objective. In this case, the objective espoused by many countries is that of increasing financial incl... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with CEO of Celpay
The Mobile Money for the Unbanked 2009 Annual Report will include a detailed case study on the Zambian mobile money market, including analysis of the marketing, agent distribution and technology approaches used by Celpay and new entrant, Mobile Transactions. T... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
GSMA and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Partner to Expand Availability of Financial Services through Mobile Phones
The GSMA, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced an innovative programme that will expand the availability of financial services to millions of people in the d...
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